In the textile field, most sewing operations traditionally have been extremely labor intensive, manual operations that generally have required skilled workers for cutting, sewing, and finishing textile articles. The more labor intensive the sewing operation and the greater the skill required of the operator to form the article, the greater the cost and slower the production of such articles. For example, in the manufacture of mattresses, and especially when forming a pillow top mattress, a top panel that includes a foam or cushion material is sewn to a flanging material, after which it is applied over a spring set for the mattress, with the flanging material being pulled down over the side edge of the spring set and hog ringed or stapled to a spring to secure the top panel of the mattress thereto. A border is then typically attached about the sides of the mattress, covering the flanging material and springs. Further, the upper panels and pillowtops of mattresses generally must be sewn or attached to the mattress border, pillowtop attachment gusset, and possibly a flanging material, by a tape edge, which is applied along the mating edges or seams therebetween by a tape edge applicator. The operation of such tape edge applicators generally requires significant skill and is a somewhat time consuming process. For continental type foundation or mattress borders, the borders generally will have a portion that will be folded flat over the top panel and mitered or ruffled along the corners thereof so as to have rounded or smooth corners that fit over the spring set or foundation. However, for a more decorative or finished appearance, it often is desirable to form a bead or seam at the point of connection between the inner panel and the border, which consequently requires further sewing operations.
Currently, there exist automated systems that enable workers to measure, cut and sew borders, attachment gussets, and other parts of a mattress or foundation. A drawback of such automated equipment is that it typically has been limited in the type and number of sewing operations that can be performed, while other operations, such as applying tape edges about the borders and pillowtops of mattresses still require significant skill and manual control by an operator to be performed. As a consequence, while various ones of the components of a mattress or box springs can be formed at increased rates, the final assembly of the mattress or box springs generally is still limited by more labor intensive, manual operations.
For example, FIGS. 1A–1B illustrate such a conventional method of assembling the mattress using a standard 4–5 thread safety stitch method and system. As indicated in FIG. 1A, the edges of the flanging material and top panel of the mattress generally are sewn with two to three lines of overlock stitches using an overlock sewing machine that sews and trims along the edges of the panel and flanging material. An additional one or two lines of overlock safety stitches also generally are applied one to two inches from the edge of the mattress panel to secure the flanging material to the bottom of the mattress panel, while at the same time, ensuring sufficient clearance from the edge so as to not interfere with the application of a tape edge in a later sewing operation.
In addition to the number of sewing operations performed, applying lines of overlock stitching to pillowtop type mattresses also typically requires a significant amount of pressure applied to the presser foot in order to compress or crush the foam or cushion material of the top panel sufficiently for sewing, especially if the top panel is exceptionally thick, i.e., six inches or more, to enable the loopers of the sewing machine to engage the sewing needles as the sewing needles penetrate the plies of material of the top panel. As a result, the increased pressure applied to compress this cushion material also bears against the feed dogs below the presser foot, potentially to the point of interfering with the operation of the presser foot and feed dogs in pulling the material through the sewing machine as the top panel is sewn to its flange.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for a system and method for forming a mattress that addresses the foregoing related and unrelated problems in the art.